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  1. Video content

    Video caption: The cost of hosting the Olympics

    Holding the world's biggest sporting event comes with a hefty price tag

  2. How many people have died of Covid?

    Robert Cuffe

    BBC head of statistics

    Earlier, Lord Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge, argued on the BBC’s Today programme that “the virus has not killed over 100,000 people”.

    This claim – which is incorrect – is based on his belief that “a very large number of people have died with Covid but not necessarily of Covid”.

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) divides Covid deaths into those that were due to Covid and those that involved Covid (but not caused by it).

    The ONS says that, up to the start of July 2021, more than 120,000 people in England and Wales had died due to Covid.

    Lord Sumption was challenged that these people probably wouldn’t have died were it not for them getting Covid.

    He said “at the age which they have reached, they would probably have died within a year”.

    But the ONS says that, before the pandemic, an 80-year-old woman could expect to live another 10 years (nine for men).

    Even an 80-year-old, obese, diabetic man would have been expected to live another three to five years.

    Nearly half of Covid deaths have been among people younger than 80. They could expect to live even longer.